This invention is concerned with improving the reliability and performance of distribution valves of the type employed to sequentially direct a fluid, such as water, to a plurality of pop-up cleaning nozzles in a swimming pool or spa.
This type of valve is well known in the prior art. One particularly successful version of the distribution valve is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,592,379 granted Jun. 3, 1986 to John M. Goettl for xe2x80x9cFluid Distribution Valvexe2x80x9d. Many of the features disclosed in the Goettl patent are useful in the valve to which this application is directed and, hence, the Goettl disclosure is incorporated herein by reference.
The valve of the ""379 patent can be improved upon.
Fluid distribution valves are usually installed in an accessible, and hence, visible location. So asthetics of the valve are important. And this, in turn suggests that the valve be made as small as possible.
An important feature of the Goettl ""379 patent is that both the inlet pipe socket and the outlet pipe sockets depended from one face of the base of the valve. In that valve the socket grouping was confined within the outside diameter of the valve base. This limited the size of pipe that could be employed with the valve.
According to this invention larger pipe sockets are provided with the outer regions of the pipe sockets extending beyond the outside diameter of the side wall of the base. Thus, larger piping can be used in the system for delivering fluid with less resistance.
The arrangement does not detract from the asthetics of the valve because the sockets are usually buried from view.